October 25, 2021    Updated October 25, 2021 at 9:39 pm

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through TikTok—as I do far too often—and came across an old Bo Burnham skit. In the video, accurately titled “Lower Your Expectations,” Burnham mischievously serenades the audience from behind a keyboard, opening with the lines “You want a guy that’s sweet, a guy that’s tough / A feminist who likes to pay for stuff.” He goes on to humorously point out the dichotomous traits of an “ideal man,” “a good boy, a bad boy, a good bad boy,” before kindly reassuring the audience that this man “only exists in your mind.” And if you think that he’s being a little unfair to women, don’t fret—he has an entire verse on male expectations. 

Beyond the entertainment factor, the song’s underlying message is actually pretty relevant and prompted me to do a little more thinking. Are standards too high nowadays? Are we setting unrealistic expectations for our romantic partners that leave us feeling dissatisfied, disappointed, and single? Should we in fact take Burnham’s advice and simply lower our expectations?

I’m sure we’ve all heard the familiar complaints from friends that “there are no good options” or they “would never date anyone here” in relation to Boston College. In the spirit of full disclosure, I, too, am guilty of this pessimistic talk from time to time. But how fair is this really? Surely, on a campus of nearly 15,000 students and in a city filled with young professionals there have to be options. In writing this article, I turned to my single friends for insight into why they choose not to date. 

One of the top responses I received, which wasn’t entirely surprising to me, had nothing to do with the quality of options out there, but rather addressed concerns surrounding their own individual “college experience.” A lot of my friends said that they chose not to date because they felt it would take away from their time at BC spent with friends, at parties, and excelling academically. To me, this is understandable, as I spent two years of my BC experience in a relationship, and despite the many positive aspects of it, I felt as if I were missing out on making important college memories. But, that rationale has a lot to do with the individual I dated and not so much to do with the quality of potential partners, so it doesn’t quite explain all of the complaining that good options are non-existent.

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Source: https://www.bcheights.com/2021/10/25/college-dating-should-we-lower-our-expectations/